The Art of Being Free - Keynote Speakers

Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns Presents: Telling the American Stories

September 30, 2008
7 p.m.
Massey Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
Ken Burns has been making documentary films for more than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. Stephen Ambrose, the historian, has said of Burns' films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." Burns will address his approach to "history" and his perspective on the American experience and on the following day will answer questions from students in a Q-and-A session.

First Year Seminar Speaker James Loewen: Lies My Teachers Told Me

October 28, 2008
10 a.m.
Massey Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
James Loewen wrote the best-selling Lies My Teachers Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong, in part a critique of existing textbooks, but also an account of American history as it should be taught. His most recent book is Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. His other books include Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong; The Truth About Columbus; and Mississippi: Conflict and Change, which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Nonfiction.

Historian David McCullough Presents: Beginning a Presidency

March 30, 2009
7 p.m.
Curb Event Center
David McCullough is a best-selling author and one of America's most distinguished historians. His books have led a renaissance of interest in American history. He has received two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies John Adams and Truman. As an historian, he paints with words, creating pictures of the American people that live, breathe and above all, confront the fundamental issues of courage, achievement and moral character. In his presentation, McCullough will discuss the new presidency and place it in a larger historical context.